Chorizo
The iconic Spanish pork sausage, deep red from smoked paprika (pimentón). Comes cured (sliced cold like jamón) or fresh (cooked in stews and over coals).
Chorizo is the most internationally famous Spanish sausage: minced pork seasoned with smoked or sweet paprika (pimentón), garlic, salt and pepper, stuffed into a natural casing. The paprika is what gives it the deep red colour and the smoky flavour. The category splits two ways. Cured chorizo (chorizo curado) is dry-aged for weeks or months, eaten cold in thin slices on a charcuterie plate. Fresh chorizo (chorizo fresco) is uncured, needs cooking, and gets used in stews like fabada, in scrambled eggs, sliced into bocadillos, or grilled over open coals. Within each, the sweetness or heat varies: chorizo dulce uses sweet paprika; chorizo picante uses hot; chorizo cantimpalo is the smoked-and-cured Castilian standard. Different from Catalan butifarra (paprika-free) and Mallorcan sobrasada (soft and spreadable).
How it's served
Cured: thin slices on a charcuterie plate, eaten cold with bread. Fresh: cooked in stews like fabada (Asturian bean stew), grilled over coals (chorizo a la parrilla), simmered in cider (chorizo a la sidra), or fried alongside scrambled eggs.
Regional variation
Chorizo de Cantimpalos (Castile, with DOP) and Chorizo de León are the most-cited Spanish cured varieties. Chorizo riojano is a smaller fresh sausage common in La Rioja. Chorizo de Pamplona is finer-textured, made for sandwich slicing. Mexican chorizo is a completely different sausage despite sharing the name: fresh, often with vinegar and chilli rather than paprika, sold raw.
- Origin
- Spain
- Etymology
- From the Spanish chorizo, of disputed origin; possibly from the Latin salsicium.
Where to try it in Barcelona
2 restaurants on Guidavera mention chorizo in their kitchen description.
Frequently asked
What is chorizo?
A Spanish pork sausage seasoned with smoked or sweet paprika (pimentón), garlic and salt. The paprika gives it the deep red colour and smoky flavour. Comes cured (eaten cold in slices) or fresh (cooked in stews, grilled, or fried). One of the most internationally recognised Spanish foods.
What's the difference between Spanish and Mexican chorizo?
Despite sharing the name, they're completely different sausages. Spanish chorizo is seasoned with paprika and either cured or fresh. Mexican chorizo is always fresh, often seasoned with vinegar and chilli, and looks (and cooks) more like uncured ground meat than a firm cased sausage. Don't substitute one for the other in a recipe.
Is chorizo always spicy?
No. The default Spanish chorizo is mild (chorizo dulce, made with sweet paprika). Chorizo picante uses hot paprika and is genuinely spicy by Spanish standards. Most Spanish dishes calling for chorizo mean the mild version unless picante is specified. Mexican chorizo is almost always spicy.
Related terms
- ButifarraThe Catalan family of pork sausages: fresh ones grilled over coals, cured blood-based ones, and a sweet lemon-and-sugar oddity from the Empordà.
- SobrasadaMallorcan cured pork sausage that's spreadable rather than sliceable: soft, paprika-red, eaten on bread or stirred into sauces.
- MorcillaSpanish blood sausage. Burgos style is rice-based and crumbly; Asturian style is onion-heavy and richer. Always cooked before eating.
- Jamón ibéricoCured ham from the black-hooved Iberian pig. The top grade, jamón ibérico de bellota, comes from pigs fed on acorns in the dehesa.
- FuetLong, thin Catalan dry-cured pork sausage with a powdery white mould on the outside. Eaten in slices as a snack or tapa.
- CallosSpanish tripe stew. The most famous version is callos a la madrileña: tripe slow-cooked with chorizo, morcilla, ham bone and a paprika-tomato broth.
- LomoThe Spanish word for loin. On menus it usually means either fresh pork loin (lomo de cerdo) or cured pork-loin charcuterie (lomo embuchado).